More Canadian fintechs are branching out and partnering with international powerhouses.

The Montreal-based Flinks
has announced a new partnership with TransferWise. Flinks is a financial data aggregator dedicated to the Canadian market while TransferWise is an international money transfer company developed in Estonia and based in the U.K.

Flinks uses its API platform to sync financial apps with customers’ bank accounts to verify account information, transactions and balances in real-time. These features led TransferWise to partner with Flinks, realizing that a homegrown solution would be best for their Canadian customers. With the partnership, TransferWise becomes Flinks’ first global customer.

TransferWise customers will be able to utilize a faster and more seamless experience now that Flinks is onboard. The Montreal fintech’s instant account verification and their existing links to Canadian financial organizations mean transferring is a much simpler affair, and Flinks’ bilingual API allows TransferWise to better serve French-speaking customers in Quebec and across Canada.

“We realized that US-based solutions were not reliable enough to provide Canadian consumers a good user experience,” said Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, CEO of Flinks. “Winning the support of TransferWise, a hugely successful fintech and one that we look up to, is strong validation. We’re excited to continue expanding into the global arena.”

This partnership is the latest in a string of smaller Canadian fintechs partnering with larger financial organizations. Instead of fighting and dividing one another, collaboration fosters a better experience for customers and more growth for the economy. Recent examples include TD working with Kasisto
, and of course Flinks’ ownrecent partnership with Merchant Advance Capital. Banks like BMO are actuallyholding competitions to reward fintech startups like Fortuna.ai.

“Flinks is a major success story for fintech in Canada, and partnering with them was a no-brainer for TransferWise,” said Andrew Boyajian, head of North American banking for TransferWise. “Their team saw a problem and solved it, allowing TransferWise to improve the user experience for our customers.”

Transferwise has been operating in Canada since 2016 and has put almost $500,000 back in customers’ pockets each month by letting them transfer money with real exchange rates. They were also the first company in Canada to enable international money transfers
via Facebook Messenger, a platform used by 1.3 billion people per month around the globe. TransferWise’s Canadian user base has grown 215 per cent from July 2016 to 2017.

Flinks is a finalist for the Canadian Innovation Awards New Startup category.Head here to vote for them before February 2.